Cent Eur J Public Health 2011, 19(1):26-29 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3602

Hepatitis C Virus Antibody Status, Sociodemographic Characteristics, and Risk Behaviour among Injecting Drug Users in Croatia

Tatjana Vilibić-Čavlek^1,2, Jelena Marić¹, Ljiljana Katičić¹, Branko Kolarić^3,4

¹ Department of Virology, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia

² School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia

³ Zagreb County Institute of Public Health, Velika Gorica, Croatia

⁴ School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Croatia

The study was conducted among 76 injecting drug users (IDU) from seven Croatian cities during a three-year period (2005-2007). Each par-ticipant completed a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics and potential risk factors for hepatitis C virurs (HCV) infection followed by anti-HCV and anti-HIV antibody testing. The mean patient age was 30. The majority of patients (69.8%) reported more than one potential exposure to HCV: 97.1% had shared injecting equipment, 75% reported risk sexual behaviour, and 56.3% reported a history of travelling abroad. The overall HCV seroprevalence was 51.3% (95% CI=40-63%). HCV seroprevalence increased with increasing number of risk behaviours (p=0.026). Needle sharing frequency was the most important risk factor for hepatitis C. The HCV seroprevalence rate ranged from 27.3% in IDUs who answered that they shared needles occasionally to 100% in IDUs who always shared needles (p<0.001). No other risk factors (age, gender, educational level, marital and employment status, history of travelling abroad and sexual risk behaviour) were associated with HCV seropositivity.

Keywords: hepatitis C, IDU, seroprevalence, risk factors

Received: December 18, 2009; Revised: October 4, 2010; Accepted: October 4, 2010; Published: March 1, 2011  Show citation